Tories, or the adherents of the crown and Parliament, were conservatives. The latter defended or condoned the oppressive measures of Parliament; the former denounced them as absolutely tyrannical and not to be endured. The question, Which party is right? was a vital one. The imperial government settled it in favor of the Whigs by rescinding their oppressive measures one after another; and this decision has been ratified by the judg. ment of posterity on both sides of the Atlantic. The Declaration of Independence compelled men of opposite opinions to avow them publicly. Then the important question arose concerning the policy of tolerating the Tories, or loyalists -their acts must be restrained as a prudential measure against injury to the patriot cause. Having the power, and believing themselves to be in the right, the Whigs took decisive measures to that end. Imprisonment or other odious restraint at home, or banishment, was the alternative presented. To a large proportion of the loyalists the latter horn of the dilemma appeared the least affliction, and many hundreds abandoned their country and fled to Nova Scotia or to England; while a considerable number, especially of the young men, were embodied in military corps, and took up arms against their Whig countrymen.

Skinner, of New Jersey. Later still the loyalists of the Carolinas, who were numerous in the western districts, were embodied under Maj. Patrick Ferguson, killed at King's Mountain in 1781. Altogether, there were twenty-nine or thirty regiments, regularly officered and enrolled. The most noted loyalist corps in the war was that of the Queen's Rangers, led by Major Simcoe, afterwards governor of Canada.

The loyalists were of two kinds. Some were honorable, conscientious men, governed by principle, and friends of the British government by conviction; others were selfish and unscrupulous, siding with the supposed stronger side for purposes of gain, spite, or opportunities for plunder and rapine under legal sanction. The majority of the latter class filled the military ranks, and their oppressions and cruelties excited the fiercest animosities of the Whigs, who suffered dreadfully. They were made to hate the name of Tory, and in many instances the aversion was felt for at least two generations in Whig families towards the descendants of Tories. Banishments and confiscations by the Whig authorities were popular; but when peace came and animosities subsided, mercy and justice combined to do right. In the negotiation of the treaty of peace (1782), the British commissioners claimed indemnity for the losses of the loyalists. It was denied on the ground that the Whigs during the war had really suffered greater losses through the acts of the Tories, and the claim was not allowed.

This embodiment was undertaken by the deposed Governor Tryon, of New York. He was ably seconded by Oliver De Lancey, brother of a lieutenant-governor of the province of New York, and Courtlandt Skinner, of New Jersey. But the loyal- At the close of the war the military orist corps numbered far less, for long ganizations of the loyalists were distime, than the ministry or their parti- banded, and some of the officers were transsans in America anticipated. The greatest ferred to the royal army and continued in exertions of the three leaders above named service for life. Others, less fortunate, had not caused an enrolment of over went with a host of civil and military 1.200 of them as late as the spring of companions into exile, the northern ones 1777. Afterwards the number greatly in- chiefly to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, creased, though there were not a great and Canada, and the southern ones to the many in the field at one time. Sabine Bahamas, Florida, and the British West estimates the whole number enrolled Indies. Many also went to England, and during the Revolutionary War at 20.000. for years were importunate petitioners The first organization was under Lord for relief from the British government. Dunmore in Virginia and Martin in North The officers generally received half pay. Carolina, in 1775. Later there were loyal- Towards the close of 1782 the British Parists under Sir John Johnson and Colonel liament appointed a committee to attend Butler in New York; also under Tryon to the claims of the loyalists. By their de and De Lancey in the same State, and cision (June, 1783) the sum of $216,000

was to be distributed annually among 687 government remained until 1841, when loyalist pensioners. The claimants finally Upper and Lower Canada (now Ontario became so numerous that a permanent and Quebec) formed a legislative union. board of commissioners was appointed, When the confederation was formed, in which continued about seven years. On March 25, 1784, the number of claimants was 2,063, and the aggregate amount of property claimed to have been destroyed or confiscated, besides debts which they had lost, was about $35,000,000. In 1790 the Parliament settled the whole matter by enactment. Altogether, nearly $15,000,000 were distributed among the American loyalists by the British government. It was regarded as a most generous act in a nation which had expended nearly $100,000,000 in the war, and by it lost a vast and valuable domain.

Tornado, a violent storm of high velocity; named from the Spanish because of the turning and twisting of an air-current. In the United States the tornado is quite a common occurrence in sections east of the great plains; in the spring in most of the Southern States, and in both spring and summer in some of the Northern States. A tornado is frequently and erroneously given the name of cyclone, but while a cyclone may be several hundred miles in diameter and only a mile or two deep, a tornado is usually only a few score feet in diameter and only several hundred feet high. The cyclone may last several days, while the life of a tornado is generally limited to an hour or two.

1867, Toronto, the name by which York had been known since 1834, became the permanent seat of government for Ontario. In the winter of 1812-13 the American Secretary of War (John Armstrong) conceived a new plan for an invasion of Canada. He did not think the American troops on the northern frontier sufficiently strong to attack Montreal, and he proposed instead to attack successively Kingston, York (now Toronto), and Fort George, near the mouth of the Niagara River, thus cutting off the communication between Montreal and Upper Canada. As the British had a sloop-of-war on the stocks at York, another fitting out there, and a third repairing, Dearborn and Chauncey were of opinion that the surest way to secure the supremacy of Lake Ontario, and so make an invasion successful, would be to attack York first. This proposition was sanctioned by the President, and at the middle of April (1813) Chauncey and Dearborn had matured a plan of operations with a combined land and naval force. It was to cross the lake and capture York, and then proceed to attack Fort George. At the same time troops were to cross the Niagara River and capture Fort Erie, opposite Buffalo, and Fort Chippewa, below, join the victors at Fort George, and

all proceed to capture Kingston. With 1,700 troops under the immediate command of Brig.-Gen. Zebulon M. Pike, Dearborn sailed in Chauncey's fleet from Sackett's Harbor, April 25, and on the morning of the 27th the armament appeared before

Toronto, the name of an Indian village York. Chauncey's fleet consisted of the when Governor Simcoe made it the capital new sloop-of-war Madison, twenty-four of Upper Canada in 1794, and named it guns, the brig Oneida, and eleven York. There the seat of the provincial armed schooners.

ing it, when the wooden magazine of the battery, which had been carelessly left open, exploded, killing some of the garrison and seriously damaging the works. The dismayed enemy spiked the cannon and retired to a battery nearer the town. That, too, was soon abandoned, and Sheaffe and his men fled to the garrison, near the governor's house, and then opened a fire of round and grape shot upon the Americans.

York was then the headquarters of Gen- pounders. Pike's men were about to storm eral Sheaffe, at the head of regulars and it, and Chauncey's round-shot were poundIndians. It was intended to land at a clearing near old Fort Toronto, but a strong easterly wind drove the boats in which the troops had left the fleet farther westward, and beyond any effectual covering by the guns of the navy. Major Forsyth and his riflemen led the van in landing. When within half rifle-shot of the shore they were assailed by a deadly volley of bullets from a company of Glengary men and a party of Indians concealed in the woods. Pike,

from the deck of the Madison, saw this, and, jumping into a boat, ordered his staff to follow. Very soon he was in the midst of a sharp fight between Forsyth's men and the party on shore. The main body

THE POWDER-MAGAZINE BLOWN UP BY THE BRITISH

The great guns of the British were soon silenced, and the Americans expected every

soon followed, and the British were driven back to their works near the town. The Americans, led by Pike, followed closely moment to see a white flag displayed from and captured two redoubts, and at the the block-house, when a sudden and awful same time Chauncey hurled deadly vol- calamity occurred. General Pike was sitleys of grape-shot on the foe from his guns. ting upon a stump conversing with a huge Heavy ordnance had been landed, and these British sergeant who had been taken were pressed forward with great fatigue prisoner, and with his staff around him, over the many ravines. The Indian allies when a sudden tremor of the ground was of the British, frightened by the cannon, felt, followed by a tremendous explosion deserted Sheaffe, and the latter fell back near the British garrison. The enemy, to the Western Battery, mounting 24- despairing of holding the place, had blown

up their powder-magazine, situated upon victory when the British ensign was pullthe edge of the lake, at the mouth of a ed down at York. He lingered several ravine. Fragments of timber and huge hours. Just before he expired that flag stones, of which the magazine walls were was brought to him. He made a sign for built, were scattered in every direction over it to be placed under his head, and in that a space of several hundred feet. By that position he died. The port and village of